Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Children flooding over southern border deemed ‘urgent,’ but Obama offers no plan

Faced with 60,000 unaccompanied children trying to cross the border
illegally this year, President Obama on Monday declared it an “urgent
humanitarian situation” and named a federal coordinator to make sure the
children are cared for — but offered no new ideas for how to keep them
from trying to enter.

These “unaccompanied alien children” are the latest hiccup for an
administration that has asserted the border is secure, even as it
struggles to balance enforcement with humanitarian concerns.

The White House signaled that, at least for now, it sees the flow of
children — which it predicts will more than double in 2015 — as an issue
to be managed rather than a problem to be fought.

“We are only talking about protecting these kids,” White House domestic
policy adviser Cecilia Munoz told reporters who asked whether there were
any bigger plans in the works to try to stem the flow. “These are
children, and in many cases they are young children. They have just
traveled from Central America to the U.S. alone.”